Haunted Ogden

We are now teaching classes and doing ghost hunts where you can tag along. For info go to www.hauntedogden.com

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Do ghosts remember?

A couple of months ago I did something I hadn't done for a very long time. I auditioned for a live theatre performance, musical theatre. This particular theatre I have worked at since I was about 14, I think I have done every aspect of theatre here that there is to do, except lighting. My favorite thing of course was being on stage and hunting for ghosts. .
As a paranormal investigator this was a gold mine. I recorded class A audio EVP on several occasions.
Class A means it is perfectly clear, like some one talked right into the recording device.
An investigator always announces them selves when they walk into a room or approach an audio or video recorder. This was back in the day when you had to change video tapes or flip over your audio tape, the days before Digital recording equipment was affordable. All I ever had was a tape recorder with a microphone plugged into it. I caught some awesome EVP's on that, but to change the tape every 1/2 hour was a pain and we would be sitting in the dark, dead quiet and the tape would come to the end and the recorder would flip off and make a huge sound, which made our hearts race and our bodies jump.
This particular one investigation my tape recorder was a few feet away from another investigators video recorder. We were experimenting to see if both would record the same EVP.
As the other investigator approached the video camera, to check the battery, they announced themselves "This is me". When we played it back on my audio tape and the video tape we heard "This is me". . . . "hello?" The investigator had not heard the "hello" when the video camera was being checked, but it was as plain as if some one was standing there and said "Hello" to the investigator. We would hear our names being called out loud from another room when we were all standing together checking out a garbage can. We would hear footsteps up stairs like a child running around, that one instance we weren't even really investigating, a friend was in film school and had to film a short documentary piece for class. They had chosen to do it on ghost hunting, but since it was an assignment she had written up a script of what she wanted us to say and what the people that were with her were suppose to do.
The 7 of us were all sitting in the reception area just off the lobby. We didn't even have a key for that area of the building so we couldn't have gotten up there if we wanted to. Upstairs happened to be the costume area, the costume person had commented on the hats up there. One day they were all put away on their shelves, the door would be locked and they were the only one with a key. The next time they went back up to the costume room there were hats and shoes all over the place.
There are many more incidents that happened in this theatre. First hand from people who have worked there. I will put them in my upcoming book "Confessions Of A Ghost Hunter." which should be out in 2015.
But like I said, I hadn't been to this place for a couple of years. I went to audition for a musical, the lobby was full of actors hoping to get a part and so I decided to chill in the seats of the auditorium. The double doors were open, I sat on the end of a row in front of the doors. I could see and hear every thing going on in the lobby. I didn't turn the house lights on, the light from the lobby was plenty and I was just relaxing, eavesdropping on the conversations below. After I had been in the seat for about 10 minutes the house lights turned on. I was the only one in the auditorium. The switch for the house lights was back in the light booth and there was one under the stage. I sat for a moment thinking "hmmmm maybe they put in another light switch since I was here last." I got up and turned the house lights off using the switch under the stage. I sat back down and was playing a game on my phone, the lights came back on. I whispered "oh are you saying hi? That is nice of you." I was just being silly, like a ghost would remember me and want to say hi. Again I got up and turned off the house lights. Another person came up to the auditorium and sat a few rows behind me and talked on her phone. We sat in the darken room for about 15 minutes and the other person got up and left. She had just gotten down to the drinking fountain in the lobby when the lights came back on. I thought "okay, you want the lights on I'll leave them on." a few minutes latter my name was called to go audition. I turned the lights off before I headed down to the lobby. There are about 8 or 9 stairs from the auditorium to the lobby and as I got to the 2nd stair the lights in the lobby went off and the lights in the auditorium were back on. One of the girls waiting to audition gasped and asked the guy standing by the outside door if he had turned the lights off. He shook his head no and he looked bewildered. One of the other girls said "oh it was probably the ghost, no big deal." I smiled and didn't say a word, went in and auditioned, then went back up to the auditorium to get my purse and my phone. Once again I turned out the house lights and I said "goodbye, thanks for remembering me." I didn't get a response.

Some one had decided while we were investigating the building that it wasn't a good thing to do and so we were not able to investigate there any more. Part of the reason I auditioned for the show was so I could carry on investigating after rehearsals. But I didn't get the part. I suppose I didn't look the part of a starving mother between the ages of 30 and 40.
I'll probably visit there again during a rehearsal just to see what happens with the lights. Was it me or just a glitch in the wiring?

Sometimes you can find me singing Karaoke or performing in a live production at the Heritage Community Theatre. You probably won't find me cleaning house or cooking dinner. :-) although sometimes I do those things.